Chapter Three

Spiders' Web

Raven flew a few feet above the T-Car and the R-cycle, kind of staying with the team, but not really noticing the fact that they were there. Her mind was fixed, almost obsessively, on the book. Robin felt her worry and obsession, and did not like it all. He had never seen her act like this before and it disturbed him greatly.

The Black Fox also followed the Titans progress across Jump City, and it amused her greatly. She could see the possibilities laid out before her, and she knew exactly how she could influence the circumstances around these events to get the result she wanted.

And all it would take was a tiny little nail.

Most semi-omnipotent beings only understood how to do big things, like vaporize a planet or stop a sun. The Black Fox, however, loved influencing lives through tiny little events that would end up spiraling neatly out of control. It was so much easier, much more fun to watch and far more subtle. And she always got what she wanted in the end. Today would be no different. The Fox made a single gesture and a very sharp nail magically appeared under the front tire of Robin's motorcycle. It happened so fast that the Titans barely knew what was happening, but it went something like this:

Robin's beloved bike flipped over then skidded along the ground. Fortunately Robin managed to leap out of the way and avoided braining himself on the pavement.

The bike crashed into the front of the T-Car, which immediately preformed three quite appealing little ballerina like turns in midair before coming to land on a fire hydrant upside down, both Beast Boy and Cyborg were in the car at the time of this collision, but neither was badly hurt (Beast Boy because he had the foresight to turn into a turtle and duck into his shell before the big crunch. Cyborg was just plain durable).

Starfire, who had been behind Raven, swooped down to check on Robin, not noticing the fact that the other female Titan was still flying her way toward the museum, apparently oblivious to the fact that there had just been a crash involving her friends right below her in plain view.

After checking to make sure that Robin was alright (and he was perfectly fine) Starfire soared over to the ominously smoking T-Car and began helping Cyborg and Beast Boy out. Beast Boy came out easily, but Cyborg's extraction including much sweating, grunting, pulling, some mild grumbling and some not so mild swearing. All this took about twenty minutes. Of course, after he was out Cyborg's first concern was for his car.

"Oh my poor baby!" he moaned and stroked the car like it really was a fallen child. "My sweet little baby! Don't worry honey, I'll fix ya up!" He went along on this tangent for ten more minutes.

Robin looked around and realized that someone was missing from this happy little scene.

"Raven? Hey! Where is she?"

Cyborg finally looked up from his car and looked around "Where did she go? Wasn't she just here?" He asked, not realizing that she had continued flying when the rest of them had an accident.

Robin tried to contact her on the communicator, but the thing gave him nothing but static. He had a bad feeling that he knew exactly where she was, and he did not like the idea at all.

"We have to get to the museum, now." He said, but something inside told him that he was somehow to late.

It was not that Raven had purposely left the others stranded on the side of road; in fact she was almost positive that they had been behind her the entire time (perhaps this was yet more of the Black Fox's interference). She was completely taken aback when she landed in front of the museum, turned around and saw nobody following her. She assumed that she had simply flown too fast for them to keep up. Still, it was probably best to check up on them.

She tried her own communicator, but was met with the same static that Robin would encounter. She was disturbed by this, but thought that it was simply a mechanical malfunction. She turned and looked at the museum.

Normally she would have waited for the others to catch up, but her obsession with the book inside that museum was far too strong. She felt an almost compulsive need to get rid of it, and the feeling simply would not let her rest. She needed to get rid of that book, or at least make sure that it did not fall into the wrong hands. So instead of doing the prudent thing and waiting for her team, Raven entered the building ready to do battle with whoever was attacking her city this time.

And if a certain book was damaged in the fight, then that was just too bad.

The place was completely deserted. There were no civilians fleeing in terror, no police running around trying to hold off whoever until the city superheroes arrived, no reporters trying to find the point where they were somewhat out of danger but still able to get the story and footage. The silence disturbed Raven, but she did not let this stop her.

Finally she arrived in the exhibit that contained the book and her opponent along with it. His back was facing her and he was staring right at the Necronomicon with obvious intent to steal. He wore black robes that Raven found very familiar. They were traditional wizard robes, and the fact that he practically stank of magical power let Raven know exactly what this man was. He was a magic user just like her.

Perhaps he sensed her presence, because he turned away from his goal and looked at Raven with one of the stoniest and emotionless faces she had ever seen (and wizards were experts in stony emotionless faces). He had her beat in the cold and stoic area hands down, and Raven knew it too. There was absolutely no evidence of human feeling in his eyes, no compassion, no anger, not even greed. But that was not what disturbed her. She was pretty sure she had heard descriptions of this man before, and what she had heard of him was not good at all.

After a few minutes of staring at each other, Raven broke the silence.

"You are Sumal Kijak, aren't you?" Raven asked.

The man nodded, still expressionless "You are a high priestess of Azar, aren't you? What is one of your kind doing here?"

"Stopping you." Raven said.

"Your kind are pacifists, you do not fight." Sumal replied matter-of-factly.

"I am of the Makhar sect."

"There is only one Makhar left, and he is a Minotaur, not a little half-breed girl."

Raven bristled. It had been a long time since she had heard that particular insult, but even after all this time it still stung. In fact it stung worse than any of the other Titans would have guessed if they had been there. But then they didn't know that this was a racist term on Azarath.

Even though she was irked Raven still retorted as if the insult had not bothered her. "Two. I am Arucules last and only student. Your information is out of date." Raven said.

"Well then, Halfblood, lets see how well the cow trained you."

Swiftly he pulled out a classic wizard's wand from somewhere and gestured with it. A broad beam of green light erupted from the stick and streaked toward Raven, who dodged it. She countered with some black bolts of energy, which Sumal blocked by holding up a ring with a red jewel. A red shield emerged from the ring and stopped Raven's bolts cold. She did not let up, however, and with a few blows she managed to break thru the shield. Now it was Sumal's turn to dodge. It went on like this for several minutes, Raven throwing black energy at Sumal and him countering with both ring and wand.

Although Raven's emotions were mostly in control, she could still feel her Rage clamoring to get out. How dare he use that term! Half-breed! This part of her roared. No other magical opponent has been that crude! I've fought Jinx hundreds of times. She knows perfectly well what I am and has never called be half-breed! Mumbo knows it too and he has never said it either. Malchior betrayed me, but he never this cruel with words! What makes this jerk think he has the right to call me that! And Arucules! How dare he call my old mentor a COW! Raven tried to ignore the anger welling up inside her, but it was hard, almost as hard as it had been that time with Dr. Light.

It did not take long, however, for Raven to realize that in this contest she was outmatched. This man was a very good mage, and he obviously had more experience than her. He was also surprisingly versatile. No matter what strategy she tried he always found a way to counter it. It dawned on Raven that she might not be able to win this without her friends, but they were nowhere in sight. Still she did not back down. She knew she could not win this now, but she was confident that she could hold Sumal off until her friends arrived.

Eventually there was a break in the fighting, and for a while the two mages stared at each other while the dust cleared. Raven was panting, it was quiet and soft, but she was still more drained than she had ever been in a magic battle. Sumal, however, had not even broken a sweat. He was giving her an odd look, though. It had changed from one of indifference to one of mild curiosity, the kind that bug collectors had for an insect that had a first looked common but upon closer inspection ended up being a rare variety. Raven did not like this look any better than she had liked the first one.

"Your powers are…surprisingly powerful." Sumal finally said.

The look he was giving her combined with this statement somehow made Raven very nervous, still if she could get him talking like normal villains talked…

"Is it true that you steal the powers of others?" She asked, desperate for a topic that she thought might get him bragging. She expected a long tirade about the mages he had stolen from or maybe even one of those My-Horrible-Childhood-and-How-I-Became-a-Villain-stories that these people seemed so fond of.

"Yes," Sumal said "And I think I like yours. I'll take it."

Raven glared at him. With these words her plans to delay him flew out the window. Deep inside she hated her dark powers almost as much as the father who had given them to her. She saw her power as a burden and secretly wished that she had not been born with it. A small part of her would have been glad to see her power gone, but most of her rebelled against the notion. Her power was a part of her, even if she hated it, and she was not going to give it up so easily.

"You want it that badly…" Raven said, and formed her dark energy around her hands in the shape of bird claws. She lunged for Sumal, hoping to take him by surprise.

Swiftly Sumal pulled out something long from his cloak, and Raven recognized it as a plastic gun. She had just enough time to wonder what in the world he planned to do with a toy when he pulled the trigger. A broad grey beam washed over Raven and pushed her backwards.

Stolen powers! She thought as she sailed backwards He must store them in different items! Why didn't I think of that beforehand?

Raven slammed into a display case of antique vases, one of which fell and smacked her on the head. She grunted in pain, and slid to the ground completely dazed.

She heard Sumal walking toward her, but she could not seem to see well, for some reason black spots kept dancing in front of her eyes, making it hard to concentrate. She heard him mutter something, but she could not make it out. Then she heard him walk back in the direction of the book. Was he changing his mind about stealing her power?

"Riki," She heard him say "We are taking her with us. Bring her."

So much for that thought.

Raven heard a scratching sound on the wall to the right of her. She looked over and saw the biggest spider she had ever seen. It was as big as a large dog, and it was coming toward her.

Familiar, her foggy brain managed to recall. Mind of on creature bonded to another. Now where did he get one of those? Darn it, I hate familiars! Oh poor old Zip…Raven! Now is not the time to think of him! Got to get up.

She tried to get up, whether to flee or fight she still was not sure, but her legs did not seem to be working right. She settled for trying to slide away. The spider had a terribly predatory look about it, and she suddenly felt like a mouse being stalked by a cat. She tried a blast of dark energy, but was surprised when she found a block over her mind. It prevented her from using her power.

Sumal must have cast some spell on me when I was dazed by that stupid vase Raven thought.Her hand found a shard of glass from the display case. She gripped it, even though it was a poor weapon at best. But it was better than nothing.

Riki the spider familiar lunged, and Raven stabbed at the monster with her glass shard. The creature reared as the glass cut into it, but the wound was shallow and did not cause much damage. Raven still slashed, even though it was pretty useless. Riki hissed at Raven and lunged again, and this time the spider's fangs pierced Raven's leg. The spider then backed away from its victim.

Raven started feeling woozy and tired. The spider's venom must have been some sort of tranquilizer, and Raven was succumbing to it quickly. The glass shard fell out of her hands as her vision became blurrier and blurrier.

Recognizing the fact that Raven was helpless now, Riki approached the fallen Titan and started spinning a cocoon. Raven could see the creature covering her legs with sticky webbing, but she could no longer move at all, and she was starting to lose consciousness.

Her last thought was Where in the WORLD ARE MY FRIENDS! And then she slipped into the darkness and knew no more.

Beast Boy gently dropped Cyborg from his pterodactyl claws at the entrance of the museum. He shifted to a dog form and started sniffing around for Raven. He picked up her scent right away. She had a very distinct odor (although he had just enough self preservation not to tell her about her odor, even he was not that dumb) it was strange, it didn't smell like a normal human. Most humans kind of smelled a bit apelike, maybe because they are related to apes, but Raven smelled like a completely different animal. Beast Boy was not quite sure what, but it was an interesting smell. It was kind of…nice. But of course he would never tell Raven that! That would have been suicide.

For some reason her smell made him feel…odd. Very odd. This had been happing a lot lately, and he couldn't quite explain it. It felt a bit like what he once felt for Terra, but very different at the same time. He couldn't explain how it was different, just that it was different, and much more powerful.

"She here?" Robin asked as he landed with Starfire, she had carried her boyfriend like Beast Boy had carried Cyborg.

"No doubt about it." Beast Boy said as he shifted back to human form. "I can still smell her in the air."

Robin nodded and entered the museum without a word. Beast Boy followed closely. Robin looked worried, but Beast Boy was not. After all, this was Raven! Nothing could hurt her. She was tough and brave and smart. She probably already had the criminal in tow. Still, something felt wrong here. Something Beast Boy just could not place. He was smelling something else here, but in his human form he could not quite make it out.

He was just about to shift into something with a better nose when he spotted Raven laying on the ground not ten feet away. She was already halfway incased in webbing and still unconscious. Sitting on top of her, still weaving away, was Riki the giant spider. Sumal Kijak was nowhere in sight.

Suddenly filled with inexplicable anger, Beast Boy shifted to lion and lunged toward the spider with a roar. Of course in animal form he could not speak human, but he could talk animal.

"Let her go!" he roared.

Riki reared on four of her six legs and waved the other two threateningly.

"Come try and stop me, little green freak." She said.

Beast Boy sensed the others running up to stand beside him. In this form he could feel the others anger and rage. He was angry too, and ready to tear this monster apart for daring to hurt Raven.

"Titans, bring that monster down!" Robin bellowed.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Someone from behind them said mildly.

Beast Boy turned and saw someone step out of the shadows, literally step. He stank of magic and danger and cold, and he made Beast Boy's hackles rise in alarm. He had managed to conceal himself perfectly somehow, both sight and scent.

"Who are you? What have you done with Raven?" Robin bellowed.

"Are you an idiot? Isn't it obvious what I am doing? I am taking this book," Sumal held up that dratted Necky-whatever book "and the half-breed with me. Get out of my way and I will not hurt you."

"Not. Happening." Robin said through gritted teeth "TITANS GO!"

Beast Boy lunged at the man, hate and anger in his feline eyes. He was ready to use his lion's claws to tear this guy apart. No WAY was some magic user taking HIS Raven away from him.

YOUR Raven? A small voice inside him whispered Since when was she YOUR Raven?

But now was not the time for soul searching. Beast Boy shoved the voice away angrily. There was more important things to do now, like removing this guy's head from his shoulders.

This time the mage didn't even try to use a stolen power. Instead he clapped his hands on either side of Beast Boy's head, before the shape shifter could disembowel him like a gutted fish. Pain, like a thousand needles digging into his skin, exploded over Beast Boy's entire body. It felt like a thousand bees were attacking him in tandem, or maybe a pack of insane nurses with hypodermic needles. He lost control over his beast form and involuntarily shifted back to a human.

The man dropped him and turned to face Cyborg, who had leaped up to give him a nice flying smack. Sumal pulled out his toy gun and blasted Cyborg. The grey light pushed Cyborg much farther than it had done with Raven. In fact it propelled Cyborg all the way through three walls, and then impaled him on the fossilized tail of a stegosaurus. However, since most of him was robot he was not killed. But he was stuck, and it would take a while to get him unstuck. For now he was out of the fight.

Beast Boy tried to get up, but his body still tingled, and he could not get his muscles to obey him.

Starfire and Robin had not attacked Sumal, rather the young alien had made a dive for the spider. She was desperate to free her good friend. She dared not use starbolts for fear of hitting Raven. She aimed a punch at the loathsome creature before her.

This was a mistake. Riki jumped up as Starfire's fist went toward her. The monster latched onto Starfire's arm and scurried up toward her neck. Starfire shrieked in terror as Riki sank sharp fangs into her neck and drained their venom into her. If anything it worked on Starfire better than it had on Raven. She fell to the ground, completely out before she had even hit the concrete.

Almost instantly thoughts and concerns for Raven were eclipsed by concern for Starfire in Robin's mind. Thinking that she had been badly poised, maybe even killed, Robin rushed to his girlfriends side. He had no way of knowing that the venom was harmless, so he feared that Starfire was dying from poison.

Riki ignored him. She went back to Raven and started dragging the unconscious girl over to her master. Sumal was muttering something yet again, and a swirling vortex of light appeared before him. It was obviously some sort of portal, and he was preparing to take himself, his pet and his prisoner away.

Beast Boy shouted at himself to get up, and surprisingly he managed to. As Riki and Raven disappeared through the portal Sumal felt something grab him and pull him back. It was Beast Boy, in the form of a crocodile. The young man had thought that something with thick skin would be able to resist that odd power.

Sumal gave Beast Boy a contemptuous look and touched his head. Instantly Beast Boy felt pain flood through him just as strong as before, but he would not let go. He could not let go. Raven was depending on him. He was not going to let her down.

Riki turned as if to help her master and stared with her eight bulging red eyes. She knew she was supposed to take the girl, but her master was in danger. She did not know what to do so she just stood there.

Just hang on Beast Boy; just hold on a bit longer. Beast Boy mentally coached himself. Robin will probably be over here to help any second now. Yep, any second. OH COME ON DUDE! GET YOUR SKINNY BUTT OVER HERE AND HELP ME! STOP FUSSING OVER YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND HELP! Hey! What is creepy doing?

"Creepy" had pulled out what looked like a monocle. One of those little lenses things that old time British people used. Just as Beast Boy wondered what in the world he was doing with that thing the man had placed it over his eye. Beast Boy looked and saw one of those swirl things a bit like the kind Mad Mod used.

Oh no! Not this time! I am NOT going to fail Raven!

"Let go." Sumal said, and the voice was very…commanding. Irresistible. Beast Boy wanted to let go. But he couldn't let go! Raven needed him! Raven…

"Let go."

Beast Boy let go.

Quickly Sumal leaped through his portal, as if knowing that Beast Boy would try to attack again. And he did, his mind screaming in rage and emotional pain, Beast Boy lunged again. But his jaws snapped at empty air as the portal consumed all three travelers and bore them to who knew where.

NO! Beast Boys crocodile body thrashed in anger and despair. Crocodiles cannot scream, but the noise he was making was very similar to a scream.

"NO! RAVEN! I LOST HER! NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Beast Boy gargled in crocodile, but no one understood him.